A bare bar in a wind tunnel tells you almost nothing. The first thing a proper cockpit session measures is the rider — because hands, arms, and cable routing dominate the drag picture before the bar's own shape gets a vote.
Position beats product
Moving the hoods 10 mm inboard saved our test rider more watts than any bar swap in the session. The uncomfortable conclusion for a shop that sells bars: fit adjustments are the cheapest aero upgrade in cycling.
Where the bar earns its keep
Once position is fixed, internal routing and a clean bar-stem junction are worth a repeatable handful of watts. Small — but they're watts you keep in every position, on every ride, without holding anything.
What we publish
Deltas, not absolutes. Absolute drag numbers depend on the rider, the day, and the protocol; differences under identical conditions survive scrutiny. When a spec sheet quotes one big number with no baseline, read it as weather. The road bar those sessions produced is the Rapier Integrated Handlebar.
This is a test article — content is illustrative while the store is in staging.
